I am an university researcher and teacher based at Duke Kunshan University, a Chinese-American liberal arts college located close to Shanghai, established through a partnership between Duke University, Wuhan University, and Kunshan city.

My expertise is in policymaking and implementation in China, especially in the areas of health and environment. My research focuses on how public policy is made and implemented in China, especially how different people and groups influence decisions, how policymakers respond to crisis events such as earthquakes, what causes policies to change, and what the policies actually say and do—for example, whether they are feasible, strict, and predictable. Most of my research examines national level policy, especially the process of lawmaking by China’s National People’s Congress.

In the area of health in China, my research includes infectious diseases, antibiotics/antimicrobial resistance, health reform, live poultry sales, food safety, pandemic preparedness, and policy change after crises such as epidemic outbreaks and earthquakes.

In the environmental field, my research focuses on soil pollution, environmental accidents, Sponge City design, urban gardening, and bicycling.

As an assistant professor (equivalent to lecturer in the UK or universitair docent in the Netherlands) at Duke Kunshan University, I teach courses on policy analysis, policy processes, crisis management, plastic pollution, and “global challenges in science, technology, and health.”

My background is very interdisciplinary: I earned a Ph.D. in Law (2019) from the University of Amsterdam; a Master of Science in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (2010) from the University of Manchester, Lund University, and Central European University (joint degree called MESPOM); and a Bachelor of Arts in Languages and Cultures of China (2007) from Leiden University.

During my PhD, I was a visiting researcher at the Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) in Beijing (see here and here) and at Harvard Law School (see here). Prior to coming to DKU, I taught comparative public administration, public policy, and crisis management at Mid-Sweden University.

Before academia, I was a high school teacher in Sweden and a fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) (an American environmental non-profit organization) in Beijing.

Outside of work, I enjoy (trail)running, bicycling, hiking, walking, and kayaking.